Dredging apparatus



W. OCONNELL.

DREDGLNG APPARATUS.

APPLICATION FILED Nov. 13, 191s.

Patented June 24, 1919.

3 SHEETS-TSHEET 2.

l I .ww R. N

m www. 1 W m N M W.

A T TO/'PNE Y.

.wr www Perm; so.. MmwLmw. wanna-www. n, c.

DREDGING APPARATUS.

APPLICATION FILED NOV. I3. ISIS.

I. ,307, 370. Patented June 24, 19l9.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 3.

A ToR/VEX WILLIAM ocoNivELL, or DETROIT, MICHIGAN.

DREDGING APPARATUS.

Speccaton of Letters Patent.

Patented June ai, 1919.

Application filed November 13, 1918. Serial No. 262,398.

To all whomz' may concern:

Be it known that I, VILLIAM OCONNELL, a citizen of the United States, residing at Detroit, in the county of lVayne and State of Michigan, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Dredging Appa*` as it is scooped up from the bottom of the river or other body of water being immediately delivered to a chute or trough which conducts it to a scow or boat to be hauled away to any point along the bank or otherwise disposed of. A further object is to construct a dredger which shall be under readyv control of the engineer, one which is simple in design, strong and rigid, and one possessl ing further and other advantages better aps` parent from the following detailed description in connection with the accompanying drawings in which- Figure 1 represents a side elevation of the bucket conveyor, the boat nearest the observer having been removed, a part of the superstructure and mud chute being in section; Fig. 2 is a front elevation of the dredger; Fig. 3 is atop vplan of the oscillating lever frame and bucket conveyer, the opposite ends of the conveyer being removed to better expose the frame; Fig. l is a vertical longitudinal section on theline 4 4 of Fig. 3; Fig. 5 is a bottom end view ofthe lever frame; Fig. 6 is a vertical sectional detail on the line 6 6 of Fig. 2; Fig. 7 is an enlarged detail plan of a portion of the bucket conveyer, parts being in section; Fig. 8 is a longitudinal sectional detail on the line 8-8 of Fig. 7 and Fig. 9v is a diagrammatic plan view of the apparatus.

` Referring to the drawings, 1, 1, represent two boats disposed parallel to one another and spaced apart, and connected rigidly to one another at one end by a housing or superstructure 2 serving as an engine house, the engine E being indicated conventionally in Fig. 1 of the drawings. The members 1, l, and 2, form a rigid U-shaped float, the arms' or members 1, 1, of which are separated by a working space a in which is free to oscilla-te in a vertical plane the lever frame 3 which may be constructed in any suitable mechanical manner, and here shown as made up of longitudinal and transverse structural members suitably braced, a construction well within the purview of any skilled mechanic. This frame is divided into a long and short lever arm by the axis of the drive-shaft 4: spanning the space a between the boats and supported in bearings 5, 5, on the decks of the boats. One end of theV shaft extends a suitable distance beyond its bearing 5, said end being provided with a pulley 6 from which leads a drive belt 7 to the pulley 8 of the engine shaft, a suitable opening o in the front wall of the engine room 3 allowing for the free passage of the upper lap of the belt, the lower lap traveling in a groove h in the deck of the boat 1. Hinged near the free end of the long arm of the lever frame 3 is a yoke 9 the cross member of which is provided with an eye-bolt 10 to which is coupled a link 11, the latter being connected to the hoisting tackle t of conventional design secured to the float in any suitable mechanical manner, there being disposed on each boat 1 a mast 12 and boom 13 as an adjunct to the tackle t, said mast and boom forming a derrick or rigging for the hoisting tackle t which when in service is coupled to the strap or bail lllcarried by the lower. trough section 15 'leading from the upper section 15 into which the material is directly discharged from the dredger buckets presently to be described. When not in service the tackle t is anchored to an eye lor ring fw on the deck of the boat l. In the present embodiment of my invention the sidesvof the trough section 15 terminate at one end in inwardly folded lipsv 16 which embrace more or less loosely the sides of the adjacent shallow portion 15 of the trough section 15', the portion 15 overlappingl the section 15 as clearly shown in Fig. 2, the resulting telescopic connection between the sections 15, 15, permitting extension or contraction of the sections should it become necessary to lengthen or shorten the vtrough as a whole. The trough 15, 15,should be suiiiciently pitched to conduct away the wet mud, a scow S being here shown in dotted outline adj acent the dredger to receive thek material discharged from the trough. Should it be desirable to change the pitch of the trough, this may be done by lifting or lowering (it is in its lowest position in Fig. 2) the same by means of the tackle t as clearly obvious from the drawings. In practice the trough merely rests on suitable brackets el, d, projecting forwardly beyond the free ends of the boats 1, 1, and preferably secured to the inner adjacent sides of the boats.

In the present embodiment of my invention I make use` of an endless conveyer equipped with buckets, the latter scooping up the mud from the bottom of the water body and discharging it into the trough 15, 15', above referred to. The conveyer herein comprises a series of rods 17 disposed across the lever frame, the several rods being connected at the ends and on either side of the longitudinal center of the frame 3 by links 1S, suitable spacing tubes or thimbles 19 being disposed between and outside the links to maintain the links against displacement, the arrangement being substantially as shown in Figs. 7 and 8. Disposed at intervals between two successive rods 17 on opposite sides of the medial longitudinal line of the conveyer are the dredging buckets 20 substantially V shaped in cross section, the ridge of a bucket being pivotally coupled to a sleeve 19 by straps or hinges 21 wrapped about the sleeve (Fig. 8), the inner wall of the bucket or that opposite the cutting wall being provided atthe opposite ends of its free edge with straps'or clips 22 which are looped around the sleeve of the next succeeding conveyer rod, the last mentioned rod having secured thereto one end of an apron 23 the opposite end of the apron being coupled to the sleeve 19 of the third rod. As shown to best advantage in Figs. 7 and 8, the apron is recessed at the corners on the side facing the bucket to make room for the clips :22, the end of the apron between said recessed portions being wrapped about the sleeve 19 of the adjacent rod in one direction, while the opposite end of the apron or that farthest from 'the bucket is wrapped about the sleeve 19 of its rod in the o posite direction. The arrangement descri ed results in a flexible bucket conveyer there being no binding between the several parts as the conveyer travels around the lever frame 3. The buckets and their aprons do not follow each other continuously or without an interruption or gap in the series, but are so arranged that the buckets (and their aprons) on one side of the medial longitudinal line of the conveyery are in staggered relation with those on the other side of said medial line, thereby bringing a bucket and' apron on one sideladj acent to an open space on the opposite side as fully shown in Fig. 3.. The result of this Yarrangement is that the buckets discharge successively on opposite sides of the media-l line of the conveyer, one bucket discharging on one side, and the neXt bucket discharging on the opposite side of said line, thereby preventing congestion of the material discharged into the trough 15, 15', and facilitating the delivery of the material from the trough into the scow S.

The bucket conveyer is actuated by the following mechanism: Terminating the upper end of the lever frame 3 is a shaft '2i on which are disposed three sprocket disks 25 provided with suit-able peripheral depressions to engage the rods 17 (or rather the sleeves 19 by which they are covered) there being disposed at the opposite end of the frame a parallel tail shaft 24 with corresponding sprocket disks 25 for engaging the rods of the conveyer. The opposite ends of the shaft 24 are provided with sprocket wheels :26 driven by chains 27 which pass over the sprocket pinions 28 on the driveshaft 1 which as we have already seen has rotation imparted thereto from the belt 7. Rotation being imparted to the shaft 2l in the direction indicated by the arrows in Fig. l, and the lever fralne 3 being lowered sufiiciently to bring the buckets 20 intoY engagement with the mud m at the bottom of the river the level of which is indicated by the line a: (Fig. l), it follows that the buckets on opposite sides of the medial longitudinal line of the conveyer will alternately scoop up the mud, carrying it upward to the raised end of the lever frame and as the buckets pass' over the top of the frame they will discharge their contents into the trough 15, 15', which conducts it to the scow S. The buckets then pass along the lower lap of the conveyer to repeat the operation. Features shown but not alluded to are wellknown in the art and require neither reference nor description in the present connection. It is of course apparent that the structure is susceptible of many changes which will fall withinrthe purview of the skilled mechanic, but which would not take the resulting structure out of the sphere of the present invention.

Having described my invention what I claim is:

1. In a dredging apparatus of the character described, a chain bucket-conveyer comprising a series 0f transverse parallel rods, links disposed in pairs connecting said rods, spacing sleeves on the rods disposed between the links, an apron having terminals looped about two successive sleeves, a bucket disposed in adjacent relation to an apron along the conveyer, the bucket being provided with loops hinged about the sleevesupporting one end of an apron and the neXtsucceeding sleeve, the conveyer having a series of buckets and associatedaprons disposed on one side of a longitudinal medial line of the conveyer and spaced apart and a correspending` series of buckets and conveyers on the opposite side of said line and spaced apart, a bucket and apron on one side alternatingwith a bucket and apron on the opposite side, whereby a bucket and apron on one side of the conveyer comes opposite a space on the opposite side, the buckets dischargingin succession first on one side and then `the other of the medial longitudinal line of the conveyer.

2. In a dredging apparatus of the character described, an endless conveyer comprising a series of aprons and associated buckets disposed on one side of a longitudinal medial line of the conveyer and spaced apart, and a corresponding` series of aprons Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the and associated buckets on the opposite side of said medial line and spaced apart, aL

bucket and apron on one side alternating with a bucket and apron on the opposite side, whereby a bucket and apron on one side of the -conveyer comes opposite a space on the opposite side, the buckets discharging` in succession first on one side and then on the other of the longitudinal medial line V25 Commissioner of Patents,

Washington, I). C. 

